RCO 2021 Summary

Happy new year to you and your loved ones! In this post, we’ll talk about 2021 and what you can expect from RCO in 2022. First, let’s go over our last event of the year, in November.

November event roundup

Let’s just be honest here, the RCO event in November was a little fishy…

…mainly – and thankfully – because of a nice exhibition of fish-themed art! It’s pretty fitting for our seat in the Blue Quarter by the Odense harbor, no?
We had a lovely November event attended by volunteers Ditte, Chloe, Jørgen, Kim, Dylan, and our chairman Alain. Together, they tackled items in need of repair from sewing machines to blenders to bikes.

Items seen:

🧵 Sewing machine
🎮 Commodore 64
🍏 2 smoothie makers
🍎 Blender
💻 Laptop
🚲 Bike

First up, electronics. We fixed a power supply issue with an old Commodore 64, removed a blown fuse from two smoothie makers (they can now return to their day jobs chopping fruit), and repaired an unrelated blender. One person brought us a laptop that was, unfortunately, too badly damaged to fix. Still, it’s always important to try.
In mechanical news, we made some small adjustments to a bike that helped the owner ride comfortably. We also saw a sewing machine, likely from the 1950s 😱 Now that we helped renew its pedal, it will live to sew another day.

Success rate

Having fixed 6 out of 7 items, this gives us a November fix rate of 86% 🙌

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We want to remind everyone that winter coat season isn’t over (and after that, it’s still sweater season), so don’t hesitate to bring your coats and sweaters in need of repair love so you can wear them with pride through spring 🧥

Repair Café in 2021

Though 2021 wasn’t an easy year, we managed to fix a lot of things – 100 kg to be more specific – and make people happy! Perhaps you’re even one of them.
We started doing these monthly roundups on our blog in August 2021, and hope to continue them and document all our work for you in 2022, as well. Let us know on Facebook or Linkedin how you like them!
In our last four months of the year, we had an 85% overall repair rate (84.75%, to be precise 😊). That’s not too shabby! We’ll certainly try to keep it consistent in 2022.
In the summer, we learned from Julia, a researcher at SDU, the many reasons why repair cafés rock – particularly in Denmark. Not only do we support a circular economy, we bring together repair and sustainability enthusiasts from many nationalities, genders, languages, ages, and walks of life to socialize and help others.

On that last point, we tried to help people ensure their bikes are in good working order with our winter bike tire giveaway. Hopefully it’s something we can repeat!
We also made a big effort to spread the word at events around Odense and Fyn, including at (), Den Fynske Landsby, Fjordens Dag, and more.
Last but not least, we want to say thank you to everybody who visited us last year and helped the planet by repairing and not throwing stuff out 😃

Looking towards 2022

Due to rising Covid case numbers, we’ve decided to cancel our event in January to keep everyone safe. We’ll use this time to clean up the container and get ready for you in February, when we’ll have a clothing-focused event in honor of Fastelavn.
Look out for this upcoming event on Sunday, February 27 from 13-16. We’ll also have a themed Valentine’s Day drink to celebrate!
We can’t wait to share our love of sustainability and repair with you this year! 🌱

Repair Cafe Odense